


Benefactor

by toesohnoes



Category: Heroes - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Stalking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-11
Updated: 2011-05-11
Packaged: 2017-10-19 07:00:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/198190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toesohnoes/pseuds/toesohnoes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once he has taken over the company, Adam makes sure to keep a close eye on any potential enemies. St Joan in particular captures his interest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Benefactor

**Author's Note:**

> Written as part of the [Five Acts Meme](http://toestastegood.livejournal.com/598881.html).

They have never even spoken before. He has a portfolio filled with photographs of her in action, and surveillance shots of her day-to-day life, but not a single word has passed between them.

Adam flicks through the latest delivery of shots. St Joan ( _Monica_ , he thinks with a sigh) has been a busy girl these week, preventing a set of muggings with her face hidden in the depths of her hood. There's one shot of her cupping her bruises knuckles, shaking away the pain.

Skipping to the back of the pile, he finds the sunlit photos: Monica in brightly coloured clothing, her hair held back from her face with a patterned band. She looks nothing like a crime fighter, and it is always these photos that Adam lingers over the longest.

A foolish waste of time, of course. He first had her followed in case she got it into that super-hero head of hers that it might be fun to try to bring him down; over the course of the year, however, it has become increasingly obvious that she is too wrapped up in college work and petty crime to make herself aim higher.

He could easily call the surveillance off. It's waste of resources.

Yet...

It's like a glimpse into another life that he is never going to have. He sees her cycling through the suburbs and having coffee with a group of friends and pouring over economic text-books in the library. She is beautifully special, but she gets to be normal. She gets to -

He stops when he gets to the very last photograph.

Monica is at her very favourite cafe (the one with the outside painted red, which Adam may have helped to bail out of financial difficulties a few months ago, just to keep her happy) in her favourite table by the window.

She isn't alone.

There's a man with her, a boy really, someone from college no doubt. They're smiling at each other, and in the photograph the eye contact goes on for hours. Adam swallows. His hand grips the photograph too tightly.

He has no claim to her. They've never even met.

Yet he has watched her for years now, and he has protected her and paid for her (who does she thinks funds the scholarship that puts her through college?). He has a right, surely, and yet here she is on a date, her eyes soft and her mouth open. She's staring at this broad, hulking beast in the way that Adam imagines she ought to look at him when they finally meet.

It's Yaeko all over again, and Adam feels a stabbing at the centre of his chest. He reminds himself that he didn't take over the company merely to use its resources to destroy a college boy's life over a girl.

Looking at the photograph, looking at Monica, he thinks that perhaps an exception can be made - just this once.


End file.
